1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer software. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system for library content creation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term computer aided design (CAD) refers to a broad variety of computer-based tools used by architects, engineers, animators, video game designers, and other graphics and design professionals. CAD applications may be used to construct computer models or drawings representing virtually any imaginable two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) construct. Initially, such a construct is defined in part by the regions making up the surface of that construct. A rendering application may be used to add detail to the construct by mapping material texture maps onto various regions of the construct.
Material texture maps, or materials, can be defined according to a variety of parameters, generally related to the type of material represented. For example, a glass material may be defined in part by a reflectivity parameter, while a concrete material may be defined in part by a coarseness parameter. A user of a rendering application may change the values of some or all of these parameters to modify the physically and/or display characteristics of the rendered material. Users of various rendering applications may apply materials to 2D or 3D constructs in different ways according to their specific needs. For example, an architect may use a hardwood floor material as an indoor floor surface and a grass material as an outdoor floor surface; alternatively, a video game designer may use either material for a variety of purposes within a virtual environment.
A problem exists with current systems for organizing materials in a material library. A material library may include material classes, instances of those material classes, various user interface files configured to present the user with different versions of a user interface for modifying parameters of the materials, various rendering implementation that allow the material to be rendered using different rendering technology, and other types of files. Conventional organizational schemes for such a large amount of diverse data are difficult to manage. In particular, conventional data libraries are not sufficient for organizing different types of information because the different types of data cannot typically be stored together.
A second problem exists in efficiently manipulating and updating different data types stored in various databases because different data types require different software tools, each having different inputs and outputs, for such purposes.
As the foregoing illustrates, there remains a need in the art for an organizational structure that overcomes the problems set forth above.